Re: [AH] Minty 808

From Niall Munnelly
Sent Mon, Jun 18th 2018, 02:27

You can always take your 808 to a tech and have the power supply recapped. I=
 guarantee it will return sounding way different from the unit you dropped o=
ff.

You can also starve the voltage a little, like when a compressor or AC kicks=
 in, and hear differences in both tempo, volume and pitch whilst listening t=
o playback. The 808=E2=80=99s a marvel, for sure, but a lot of that mojo=E2=80=
=99s a product of cost-cutting.

Sent from a mobile device. Typos and probably bad ideas.

> On Jun 17, 2018, at 10:08 PM, Brian Willoughby <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx> w=
rote:
>=20
> I don=E2=80=99t think it=E2=80=99s realistic to request a distinction betw=
een units that =E2=80=9Ctruly=E2=80=9D sound different versus those that mer=
ely need service. I can=E2=80=99t help but think of the =E2=80=9CNo true Sco=
tsman=E2=80=9D fallacy. *
>=20
> For one thing, your request assumes that adjusting the trimpots actually m=
akes two units sound alike. The thing about analog circuits is that componen=
ts have 5% and 10% tolerances, trimpots have imperfections that make them di=
fficult to adjust precisely, and there are simply a lot of variables.
>=20
> However, I would be very interested to hear some recordings that actually d=
emonstrate an audible difference in noise transistors, even though that woul=
d require very precise trimpot adjustment before it could even be tested. I=E2=
=80=99d go so far as to say that it would be very educational to purposely r=
eplace a =E2=80=9Cmagic=E2=80=9D Roland noise transistor with a =E2=80=9Cpoo=
r=E2=80=9D noise transistor, then adjust the trimpot to service manual speci=
fications and see whether anyone could actually hear a difference.
>=20
> I say this as someone who got really interested in the different kinds of r=
andom number distributions, and assumed they were audible. After writing an a=
udio plugin that can create every kind of noise (uniform, triangular probabi=
lity distribution, Gaussian, etc), I discovered that they all sound like noi=
se. Frequency spectrum manipulations are audible, but the distribution of th=
e random values does not seem to be audible. I would be very surprised if tr=
ansistor noise varied enough to be audible.
>=20
> On the latter note, Occam=E2=80=99s Razor says that Roland=E2=80=99s =E2=80=
=9Cspecial=E2=80=9D transistors were just cheap ones that were good for noth=
ing else. I doubt that they=E2=80=99re better at making snare and clap sound=
s, they=E2=80=99re probably just shite for anything else.
>=20
> Brian
>=20
> * Don=E2=80=99t look up =E2=80=9CTrue Scotsman,=E2=80=9D look up =E2=80=9C=
No true Scotsman.=E2=80=9D They=E2=80=99re quite different expressions.
>=20
>=20
>> On Jun 15, 2018, at 11:14 AM, matt holland <xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx> wrote:
>> To amend my previous request, I'm interested in hearing units that truly s=
ound different (not that just need to have their trimpots adjusted or aging c=
apacitors replaced). My suspicion all along when I've heard these claims is t=
hat they fall in to that category, but maybe there are units that (for examp=
le) have such different noise transistors that their snares can't be trimmed=
 to spec (or to sound alike). That would be a solid example.
>>=20
>> Also, just to remind everyone. Tom is looking for a minty 808 ;)
>>=20
>> mh
>=20